Veterans Want More Clout But Does Florida Need A New Agency Just For Veterans Affairs?

May 1, 1988|By Donna O'Neal, Sentinel Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — Michael Hahn was a typical 20-year-old from Tampa when the U.S. Army sent him to Vietnam in 1971. His first day in the jungle he was put in charge of 60 soldiers assigned to flush out the enemy. Morale was low, and rumors were rampant about rebellious troops shooting their officers.

Hahn was lucky. He returned from Vietnam a year later without a scratch. Today Hahn, 37, directs the Florida Commission on Veterans Affairs, a state- financed advocacy group that is backing legislation to re-create a state veterans department. It's a move Hahn says will give veterans like himself the attention they deserve.

''Veterans have been a low priority for the state of Florida for a long time,'' said Hahn, adding that Florida's 1.4 million veterans deserve more status and state services for risking their lives for their country.

The perennial battle for a separate veterans agency appears to have momentum this year, mostly because of a dispute between Democratic Senate President John Vogt and Administration Department Secretary Adis Vila, the controversial Republican appointee who oversees the state Division of Veterans Affairs. Vila's abrasive management style and housecleaning of key employees in the division have angered Democrats and veterans since her appointment last April. Now Vogt, D-Merritt Island, wants to abolish Vila's state personnel agency and create a department for veterans in its place.

Some lawmakers fear that partisan politics -- and the reluctance to oppose veterans in an election year -- will whip up enough emotion to create a costly agency that cooler heads would realize isn't needed.

''If you, pure and simple, look at the merits of what a veterans department is supposed to do -- no, a case cannot be made for a separate department,'' said Sen. Curt Kiser, R-Palm Harbor, chairman of the Governmental Operations Committee, which approved Vogt's measure in February. Kiser was the lone dissenter. ''But the politics of it are that we probably are going to end up creating a department.''

Vila says she supports a veterans department but not at the expense of her agency. Vogt denies his motives are political and has said other agencies could handle the personnel department's duties more efficiently. ''I don't have any political axes to grind with anybody,'' he said. ''With the constitutional limit we have on departments, I thought one of the things we might do is get rid of a department . . . that has no specific role in life and create one that does.''

Florida is at its constitutional limit of 25 agencies, so creating another department would mean abolishing an agency or amending the state constitution. The latter is less controversial and has gained more support. Lawmakers say privately that Vogt appears ready to drop his plan to abolish the Department of Administration in favor of the constitutional amendment, which would go on the November ballot.

But regardless of how it is created, a veterans agency essentially would duplicate services that are already offered by the state Veterans Division.

The division's main job is to help veterans and their families file claims for pensions, disability payments, medical treatment or other benefits owed them by the federal government.

With 59 employees and a $1.4 million annual budget, the division gets the federal government to pay claims it at first denied twice as often as do other states. And its success at getting federal benefits increased is more than

three times the national average.

The division also has help statewide from 11 veterans organizations and 80 local veterans offices that provide similar services in every county.

So with this record, what is the need for a separate veterans agency? Many lawmakers say that is a valid question.

''In truth, they veterans probably need more state cooperation with the federal government,'' Rep. Rich Crotty, R-Orlando, said. ''As long as I've been in the Legislature, creating a veterans department has been an issue. But only after the Department of Administration flap arose has it become a serious issue.''

Veterans say the issue is more than just politics or patriotism. They say Florida has a large number of veterans compared with at least 20 other states that have separate veterans agencies. They say Florida spends far less on veterans than the national average. And they say that many veterans who are eligible for benefits -- perhaps more than half the U.S. population -- aren't getting all their benefits because state governments don't put enough emphasis on veterans affairs.

Florida veterans have been fighting to regain their agency status since 1969, when Florida downgraded its Veterans Department to just a division.

At the time, many legislators felt that Florida didn't need a separate agency to handle what should be a federal responsibility.

Today some lawmakers still share that philosophy, as well as concerns about increasing the state bureaucracy in a tight budget year.